Blog about "The World's best Shark Dive" by Beqa Adventure Divers.
Featuring up to eight regular species of Sharks and over 400 different species of fish, Shark diving doesn't get any better!

Sunday, September 07, 2014

Sonic Boom!

Ash clouds from Tavurvur volcano spread across the eastern part of Rabaul town on 19 September 1994, as seen here from Observatory Ridge at 7.30 am. The lower of the two layers of cloud represents an earlier phase of the eruption. Source.

Wow.

I will never forget Rabaul.
I was on the infamous Voyage of Discovery, and was keeping a log for a German dive mag.
This is what I find, c/p.

Anyway.
Back then in 2002, it was an eerie dead place, with an ash cover of several feet. The people had been relocated to Kokopo, but a few, like the owners of the Kaivuna Lodge where I stayed had dug out their possessions from the ashes and persevered, against all odds. Rabaul sits on the rim of the enormous Rabaul Caldera, a pyroclastic shield volcano with several side vents, among which the devastatingly dangerous Tavurvur and Vulcan, and it was only a matter of time til one would explode again.